In our last study in Matthew 11, we looked at how Jesus was
not dancing to the tune that the religious leaders were playing. The kingdom of heaven is spiritual and
requires a spiritual entrance—an entrance that could be gained only by coming
to Jesus Himself. And there is no
forcing another way. All the self-imposed
burdens of trying to be right with God both inside and out could only be laid
upon Jesus Himself.
We pointed out that this was not at all what was
expected. In their day, the religious
leaders expected the Messiah to be one of them, to be wealthy, to live in a
palace, and to be a great military leader and triumph over Rome. They would then be in places of power in the
kingdom protected by God. The wicked
Gentiles would come groveling to them bringing tribute paying for the years of
not keeping the law of God the way the Pharisees did!
Unfulfilled expectations can also reside in the hearts of
believers like John the Baptist. So this
is a universal problem though with vastly different outcomes—the end being
governed by our response to Jesus’ invitation: “Come to me” and “Blessed is the
one who is not offended by Me.”
So now we come to Matthew 12. Apparently, the disciples have returned from
their preaching mission to Israel because in the first paragraph of our
pericope, they are walking through the countryside on a Sabbath day (Saturday)
and the disciples picked grain to eat because they had nothing else. Let’s notice their circumstances: 1) They are hungry—Jesus earlier asked them
to pray for their daily bread and this seems to be the provision. 2) Jesus apparently did not partake Himself
or that would have been on the list of charges later. 3) The Pharisees were out checking on them—on
a Sabbath! Jesus doesn’t condemn His
disciples for lack of planning nor the Pharisees for being nosy. So what is the problem? The Law forbade working on the Sabbath. You were supposed to prepare ahead of
time. Refraining from labor on Saturday
demonstrated trust in God’s provision. But
the Law did have a provision for emergencies.
(More on that in a moment). So
the Pharisees triumphantly pounced on Jesus: “Look, your disciples are doing
what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” They seemed to relish getting people
in trouble! But Jesus quietly answered
by clarifying what God is looking for: mercy not sacrifice.
By the way, this mercy idea from the Old Testament was built
on the Hebrew word ‘hesed’ often translated lovingkindness. It means God’s covenant love. God has determined to love and care for His
people. More on this in a moment.
Jesus defended His disciples by pointing out three
scriptural references that the Pharisees had completely ignored. 1)
David was in a hurry and ate the holy bread of the Presence from the
tabernacle. 2) The priests work all day long on the Sabbath
and are not guilty. And 3) He repeated
His quote from Hosea 6:6 (and Proverbs 21:3) that God desires mercy not
sacrifice. So what does this Scripture mean? 1) It means that the Law is not meant to
cover exhaustively every situation that will ever come up. 2) It means that the spirit of the Law must
be understood when the letter of the law seems to be ambiguous—especially when
the consequences appear to conflict with God’s mercy—His covenant love. How do we make a determination? What is the ‘spirit of the Law?’
Jesus later (in Matthew 22) discusses how the Law hangs on
two important points: We are to love God
with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as
ourselves. Sabbath Law recognized that
people would tend to feel that they were solely responsible for their own
prosperity instead of God. So it forced
them to trust God—a little. Neighbor Law
recognized that people needed to be reminded to care for one another—to be
merciful to others. Both of these things
are implicit in the saying from Hosea.
My responsibility toward God also involves my responsibility toward one
another and ultimately trust in God’s mercy toward me. So this is NOT a case of Jesus changing the
Sabbath Law at all. Yes, He says He is
the Lord of the Sabbath, but He has already stated that He has not come to
change a single thing in the Law (Matthew 5).
What Jesus is doing is explaining how to apply a seemingly cold
mechanical law to a human situation. God
desires mercy more than sacrifices and presumably more than requiring people to
actually go hungry.
By the way, do you see how coming to Jesus with your burden
of trying to be right with God in keeping the Law is paying off for the
disciples?
I do not believe that the Law as a requirement for being
right with God is operative for us today for several reasons. One reason we have already covered in our
discussion of Matthew 5 where Jesus announces that He is come to fulfill the
Law. He is the only One Who has ever
completely kept the law and He did it for us.
We can never do that ourselves.
So later commentators point out that Jesus is the end of the Law. It is finished. We still have responsibilities to do good but
not by simply keeping the Law. Paul
points out even further that if this is your standard of righteousness then we
all fail because we must not ever fail even once in a single point. Maybe we can say a bit more below.
Okay, now in verses 9-14 we have the case of the man with
the withered hand. Apparently Jesus went
straight from the grain fields into the local synagogue—probably at
Capernaum—and the Pharisees produced a local congregant with a withered
hand—maybe something like the after effects of a stroke. The hand was useless. And knowing that Jesus seemed to have a novel
approach to Sabbath keeping now, they used this man for their own power play to
accuse Him in front of everyone of Sabbath breaking. He was being confronted right in the
synagogue. You see, just like Jesus
warned in our last study of Matthew 11:6: ‘Blessed is the one who is not
offended by Me,’ these Pharisees are mightily offended.
Listen to Jesus response: “Wouldn’t you rescue a sheep that
fell in a pit on the Sabbath? This man
is more valuable than a sheep! So is it
lawful to do good on the Sabbath?” Then
he healed the man. Of course it’s lawful
to do good at any time. In this case,
while it is good to keep the Sabbath, it is even better to do good because a
man is more valuable than something the Law specifically allowed them to
rescue! Animals are important to
God. People, even more so. Granted this case probably had never come up
before where a healer came to town on a Sabbath day! The Law did not attempt to list all possible
applications! And what about the
man? His hand was healed to be just like
his good hand. So what could the
Pharisees reply? But the Pharisees were even more offended because they had
been shown up publicly! The text says
they conspired against Him, how to destroy Him.
Where in the Law is that allowed?
Mark says they were so angry they teamed up with the Herodians—Jews who
advocated peace with Rome by working with Herod! I thought you weren’t supposed to have
anything to do with sinners and tax collectors!
Now Jesus took action (just like He had told His apostles
when He sent them out) by doing what?
Verse 15 says He withdrew from there and many followed Him. Mark says He withdrew to the Sea of
Galilee. Matthew tells us that he healed
all of them there but told them not to post this on Facebook J. Why does Jesus frequently tell people that He
has healed not to tell anyone? He
doesn’t seem to mind them spreading the gospel, though. Apparently hearing the gospel is what is
crucial and it is the miracles He does and the things His disciple seem to do
that creates the most friction with the religious leaders. He is not
deliberately trying to create a fuss (in order to be a self-fulfilling prophecy
of a martyred Messiah). John the Baptist
had preached the same message without miracles and while he criticized the
Pharisees’ lack of repentance, it was Herod not the Pharisees who put him into
prison.
Matthew takes this opportunity to comment on Jesus’ actions here. He quotes at length from Isaiah 42. The first half of verse 18 is a description
of the Messiah – here called “My Servant.”
When was this fulfilled? When was
the Spirit put upon Him? When did He
proclaim justice to the Gentiles (or the nations)? Have you followed all the times that He has
pointed out various Gentiles in a relatively positive light? Gentile cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom were
all mentioned favorably compared to Jewish cities of Capernaum, Bethsaida, and
Chorazin. And He will say more of the
same. People without the Law were more
likely to repent than the Pharisees. Why? Because the Jews wrongly thought that simply having
the Law would guarantee them favor with God.
This is like treating a thermometer as if it were a thermostat!
One of Jesus’ stated principles was to reveal God selectively—to
“children” rather than the “wise” as He says in Matthew 11. The Jewish nation had preserved the
revelation of God but had failed to live it and proclaim it. Now those who had never even heard of it
would hear and believe. We, too, can be
guilty of knowing far more than we have applied personally.
Matthew goes on in verses 19-20 to talk about Jesus’
proclamation style. Jesus did at times
reflect anger about the hypocrisy of the religious leaders but His normal style
with everyone was not usually confrontational.
He patiently explained the Law and boldly but calmly applied it to the
current situation. I don’t believe He
would have identified with ‘in-your-face’ loud activist preaching. There are people we meet who are ‘bruised
reeds and smoldering wicks’. They have
been hurt or their light is struggling to stay lit. Jesus understood these people and loved
them. The Pharisees simply saw them as
lawbreakers, sinners, and tax collectors and hoped they would all rot in hell. I am sad to report that even some Christians
write this type of person off as well.
This gentleness that Jesus demonstrated is a fruit of the
Spirit Who dwelt in Him. The Spirit was
the One Who would make it possible to keep the demands of the Law. What Paul would later call “the Law of the
Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2)—a Law that is superior to the Law
of Moses because it is written on our heart by the Spirit of God. That is, on the hearts of those who have put
their hope in Him. Those who have come
to Him. That is why keeping the Law of
Moses is now outmoded. It has been
replaced by the Law of the Spirit that dwells in all who follow Jesus. This is the quiet Spirit of mercy. It is offensive to those who refuse to come
to Jesus. But it is one of the marks of those
who truly follow Him.
© 2018 Eric Thimell
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